I needed a short low level adventure for my group to allow time to pass and this worked perfectly.

The campaign is well detailed with its own maps, stat blocks are provided for the bandits and rewards are appropriate for level 2 and 3s.
It is a very linear quest with 3 locations making a nice quick adventure.
Their is plenty of room to tweak and customize this adventure to make it fit in with your own game.

I made some minor thematic adjustments to fit this into the campaign, and some minor difficulty adjustments to fit my level 7 party. They loved it, and Carrum has now become a recurring NPC. Thank you.

Rating:

[5 of 5 Stars!]

Creator Reply:

Adjusted to level 7? Wow! That's awesome. I had flexibility in mind when I wrote it so I'm glad it could be taken to that level for you. I really did enjoy creating Carum and have been looking for a place for him in a future adventure. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. I'm always happy to hear people enjoyed what I wrote. -Ross

Great content, I ran through the adventure and didn't find anything broken or any missing information or details that didn't make any sense. Usually I run into a couple things like that in descriptions of areas or enemies. The players enjoyed investigating the halfling and he's likely to be a recurring character now.

It was also a good length for a side quest; my group easily finished it in one session (about 5 hours of gaming).

My only suggestion would be to offer a little more description of the boulder trap. My players were not surprised, but I still had the bandits trigger the trap after the heroes got in range. Based on the description I had read, my players didn't think the trap would be large / dangerous enough to cover the area they were in and were dismayed to be hit and taking damage from what they had perceived to be a couple boulders, when they were thirty or fourty feet away.

Rating:

[5 of 5 Stars!]

Creator Reply:

Thanks for taking the time to leave a review Tom. I am happy to hear you and your group enjoyed the adventure.
Carum returns in the adventure I'm currently working on; it should be out in the first half of 2017.
I appreciate the feedback on the trap. The next time I revisit this adventure for minor updates I will call a little more attention to the trap so that alert players see the potential danger.
Thanks again,
Ross

Very well done, with enough detail to make it easy to run with minimal prep - what I look for in one-shots. Also the first D&D story I've run - my wife usually handles the D&D duties. I will be getting more of their stuff.

Rating:

[5 of 5 Stars!]

Creator Reply:

Glad to hear your enjoyed it, Jeff. I wanted this adventure to be an easy-to-run little one-shot so I'm happy it worked well for you. If you haven't already, check out my adventure, "The Blacksmith's Burden." It is a longer adventure but set up in a similar style. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review, it's deeply appreciated. -Ross

Running this adventure right now in my homebrew world. It is easy to include and adapt. Characters, plot, and mystery are well-designed and players feel a real sense of achievement in putting the mystery together. We spent a full 4-hour session just roleplaying in town, before any combat with goblins. Terrific stuff!

The key to making this sing is to invest the NPCs with personality and let the players care about the town. The custom deity (harvest) can also be adapted towards "Old Faith" or darker overtones.

I had to fix the timeline of the background as a year-long issue with production is too hard to explain in a small town - I made it weeks, and further emphasized to the PCs that the "social walls" of a small village are what has prevented other locals from talking with the smith directly about the problem.

Furthermore, since the players now feel that the smith is a traitor, I've added the element that he believes he's caught between a rock and a hard place - giving the goblins weapons means they will go and fight a tribe of orcs in nearby territory who will threaten the village, and not giving the goblins weapons means they will come and kill a family in the village. This way the smith can remain a sympathetic character.

Thank you for your review, Sam. It sounds like you and your players had a great time. I\'m glad you were able to put the hooks of the adventure to good use and spin off into more adventures. My goal is to always have a self-contained adventure that can grow as the DM needs.

I finally got around to reading this, and it is great, even as an adventure on its own, but especially as a sidetrek. It introduces a rather standard fantasy village, but somehow manages to make it very charming. The armored goblins and the Goblem are very interesting too. I recommend this adventure to all DMs, especially those new to the art.

Rating:

[5 of 5 Stars!]

Creator Reply:

Thank you for taking the time to write a review, Danilo. I am glad you enjoyed the adventure. I set out to create something that could work as introductory material but would also bring in a couple of interesting twists to catch more seasoned players a little off guard. -Ross

A very well written adventure. Easy to splice into just about any campaign as long as you can tempt your party away from any major settlements. Luckily mine were in a village, due to numbers weren't following up the main plot. Lasted two good long sessions, although mileage may vary depending on player/DM style.

Word to the beginner DMs: If you're running this with a small low level party, some of the mobs are a little well armoured, you might want to consider removing their shields. I played it straight with a party of 4 at level 3 and the party struggled with some of the high AC mobs, but they did handled it well retreating half way though and then coming back to finish it off.

Word to the wise: If you only have access to a black and white printer, don't print the maps, you're going to have to sketch them as they just turn out black.

Word to the author: Any chance of a no colour edition, with wire frame maps? See above.

That all said, looking forward to weaving in some more John Ross Rossomangno adventures into my campaign.

Thank you for taking time to write a review (and for the compliments).
Cartography and layout have both been on a learning curve for me. I\'m just a writer who has learned those things on the side by necessity. The \"printer-friendly\" versions of my work were step 1, but I\'m going to see what I can do to make the maps a little more B&W-friendly as well. It\'s something I will definitely try to include in future work and likely something I\'ll return to do for The Blacksmith\'s Burden.
Thanks again,
Ross

This is a great gamemastering aid that gives you 5 fully fleshed out innkeepers that all have something shady about them. No two are alike and all are interesting, each with several plot hooks that can be used for side quests or even a full adventure. Also there are the sidebars, which are very fun and add a cool shady flavor to any inn.

Thank you for your purchase Danilo and thank you for taking the time for a review. I\'m glad you enjoyed it. If you haven\'t already, check out my system neutral supplement, The Eternal Rest, which gives you a fully developed inn and a cast of characters to populate it. I think I may do some more system neutral material like this in the future, so I hope you\'ll check back from time to time.
Thanks again,
Ross

This is an excellent completely system neutral aid, which gives you 5 very well detailed honest and helpful innkeepers for your fantasy campaign. The innkeepers are interesting and they all have something that will be useful to the players. The six drinks and the 20 things overheard are also very fun and add great character to any inn. Each innkeeper also has a few well thought out plot hooks that can be used.

Thank you for your purchase Danilo and thank you for taking the time for a review. I was going to suggest picking up Vol. 2 but I see you already have (and that you already left a review there as well)! I hope to continue producing products that you\'ll enjoy.
Thanks again,
Ross

I just saw this on sale for "Halloween," and the concept was so intriguing that I had to buy. I literally purchased this about thirty minutes ago, and I've read all 16 pages of content... very inspiring! Very well done! The place feels alive enough that you could pitch a Cheers-style (albeit with more sinister elements) drama here. The employees and regulars are very well fleshed-out, and there are enough hooks to keep a campaign going here for many sessions! I highly recommend purchasing this, it was certainly worth the very low price. I will definitely be checking out other products by the same author!

The Eternal Rest is a great resource, and well worth the price. I recently needed a tavern for my players to use as a temporary base of operations -- one where the party would have already established a contact. One of my players is a former necromancer, so going back to The Eternal Rest while he's in town was an awesome choice, given the character. The creepy vibe, the plot hooks, and the fairly fleshed-out characters all made it believable and one of the more memorable stops in the adventure.

After the success I had with "Never Ask for Directions" and "The Blacksmith's Burden" (both from the same author) I felt compelled to explore this location based module. After reading it, I knew it would be a huge hit with my group. It has been the perfect launching point for NUMEROUS adventure hooks. In a way it has become the player's home base and they seem to be very attached to it and all the characters. What more could I ask for as their DM? This has been a wonderful addition to my game. I am eager for more modules from this publisher.